YOUNGSTOWN — From a landmark labor contract at Ultium Cells in Lordstown to the formation of an entity focused on job creation and business growth in the region to the growth at businesses in high-tech sectors, business news in the Mahoning Valley this year was mostly upbeat.

Still, there was uncertainty and distress surrounding the future of Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital while Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy played out in a Houston courtroom.

All made headlines in 2024. In fact, they were among the major news stories of the year. So without further hesitation, here were the top 10 business-related stories for 2024 in the Valley:

1 On life support

It was May 6 when Dallas-based Steward Health filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Houston U.S. bankruptcy court. Within days, the company announced plans to sell off its more than 30 hospitals, including Trumbull Regional Medical Center in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland.

In August — after canceling an auction for the local hospitals after reporting to the court it had not received qualified bids for the facilities the month prior — Steward Health announced it planned to close the hospitals in Warren and Howland as well as multiple satellite facilities Sept. 20.

It was also about August when a local coalition — a group that formed months prior aware of Steward Health precarious financial condition and motivated to save the facilities — began coordinating plans to keep the hospitals open.

A critical development in the bankruptcy case that allowed Steward Healh’s landlord to assume control of the facilities with interim operators was reached in September, and Insight Health System of Michigan was selected for the role temporarily.

Insight Health was selected as the permanent operator and in October was given the OK by the bankruptcy court to acquire the facilities as well as several affiliated satellite offices.

2 From Lake Erie to the Ohio River

In April, Gov. Mike DeWine was joined by hundreds of local business, elected and community leaders in Niles for the announcement of the creation of Lake to River Economic Development — the seventh and final network region of JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development corporation that is Trumbull, Mahoning, Ashtabula and Columbiana counties.

Many hailed the move as a game-changer for the economic development landscape in the four-county region, which up until this point had been a part of Cleveland-based Team NEO.

The business community, elected and other officials and community leaders asked for it, and helped make the case to the state, according to Alexa Sweeney Blackann, Lake to River’s interim chief executive.

“Our case detailed the unique landscape and geographic advantages that help us stand out as an economic development powerhouse, from ports on Lake Erie and the Ohio River to the strong border economy we share from Erie to Pittsburgh and the Appalachian region designation we proudly carry. We have never been so well aligned as a region,” Sweeney Blackann said at the event at the Eastwood Event Centre.

Its focus is on job creation and business development.

3 Workers producing the future approve first of its kind contract

Hourly employees represented by the United Auto Workers union at Ultium Cells in Lordstown voted in June to ratify their first local supplementary contract with the company.

About two years prior, the employees voted in favor of organization and representation by the UAW, making the facility the first unionized electric-vehicle battery-cell manufacturing plant in the U.S.

“This is an invigorating moment for the UAW Local 1112 sisters and brothers at Ultium Cells. The ratification on this local contract provides tangible wage increases along with essential language that provides employees avenues for success,” Josh Ayers, UAW Local 1112 shop chairman, said in June.

The facility employs about 2,200 people.

Earlier this month, the factory marked another momentous milestone — production of 100 million cells.

“Today is an incredible day. We’re so proud of the workforce, the milestones we have achieved,” said Tom Gallagher, vice president of operations for Ultium Cells. “There have been many along the way, but reaching 100 million cells is significant and it makes us one of the largest battery manufacturers in North America, so we’re excited about that.”

4 Happy anniversary

This year marked significant milestones for three Valley companies: the Cafaro Company, The Hearn Paper and Hynes Industries.

• The Cafaro Company marked its 75th anniversary in 2024.

It all began with William M. Cafaro, whose industrious spirit and gift for knowing when to take advantage of an opportunity, laid the foundation for the company to become one of the largest privately-held real estate developers in the U.S.

Those themes remain today with the company, led by brothers and co-presidents Anthony Cafaro Jr. and William A. Cafaro.

William M. and his brother opened the Ritz Bar in 1934 at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Shehy Street in Youngstown, but the actual formation of the company can be traced back to a grocery store in Barberton and a strip plaza in Sharon, Pa., both of which opened in 1949, ushering in the existence of the Cafaro Company.

Many other strip plazas followed. In 1964, the company’s first enclosed shopping center opened in Lima. It was 1969 when the Eastwood Mall opened in Niles.

William M.’s son, Anthony Cafaro Sr., became president in 1978, and his brother, J.J., was executive vice president.

It was the period of the late 1970 to late 1980s the company grew quickly.

The late 1980s also marked a partnership with Target.

Now led by the brothers, the company has diversified its offerings at its properties, including hotels, entertainment, professional services and residences.

• The Hearn Paper Company

The Hearn Paper Company hit 100 years in business this year, which also marked a special milestone for its owners, the Reed family, because it signifies 30 years of their ownership of the business.

The Austintown-based company services customers within a 60- to 90-mile radius across northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania. For the last 30 years, the focus has been on facility maintenance and other supplies.

The Hearn Paper Company is business-to-business. Its customers include school districts, industry, food processors and building service contractors.

“I tell my team all of the time, we are really appreciative of their contributions to our success. I think our people are what makes the difference and sets us aside from our competitors,” Rob Reed, president, said earlier this year.

His father, Bryan, who started work there as treasurer in the early 1970s, acquired the company around 1994.

• Hynes Industries in Austintown will mark its 100th anniversary in 2025, but starting celebrating in 2024.

The company, a custom fabricator and roll form metal solutions manufacturer, also was this year’s recipient of the Excellence in Manufacturing Award, jointly presented by the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber and regional partner MAGNET.

It’s given to a chamber member in Trumbull, Mahoning or Columbiana counties that has displayed longevity and excelled in growth, product innovation and achievement.

Winning the award is an “affirmation of what we are doing here and the vision we established for this company years back, and the reinforcement that we put the company on a good path to set it up for success,” Rick Organ, Hynes’ president and CEO, said.

“To me, it reinforces and is an affirmation of what we are doing here.”

The company produces parts primarily for four industries: automated material handling, truck trailer, solar and commercial and industrial, the last of which is related to commercial building and construction.

It also has factories in Painesville and Kokomo, Indiana.

In the previous three years, the company has invested $23 million to advance its operations, largely at the Austintown site, and to better deliver for customers. During the same span, the company brought on about 20 people in engineering and quality departments.

Among the investments is a new approximately $10 million advanced capability in-line weld mill at the Austintown facility on Henricks Road that came online this year.

5 Reefer madness

Aug. 6 marked the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in the Valley.

That day, customers lined wrapped around gLeaf Medical Cannabis in Warren and Green Leaf Therapy in Struthers.

Ohio voters in November 2023 overwhelmingly approved allowing those over 21 to possess, purchase and grow limited amounts of cannabis for personal use. But recreational sales were put on hold while the state set up a regulated system for legal marijuana purchases and worked out other rules.

The language in the issue included a provision allowing communities to prohibit the location of businesses that sell it. If that were to happen, the owner or operator of a dispensary can attempt to place the matter on a ballot for voters in that community to decide through a petition initiative.

That happened in Hubbard city.

In July, council voted to ban the sale of recreational marijuana, but A Cut Above dispensary, a medical marijuana dispensary, was successful in getting the matter on the ballot as a referendum.

Voters on Election Day on Nov. 5 sided with the dispensary and agreed to allow the sale of recreational marijuana there.

6 Growing and growing

Several local companies grew inside and outside of the Valley.

• Ursa Major, a rocket propulsion company already with an advanced additive manufacturing lab at the Youngstown Business Incubator downtown, announced a new $14.5 million research and development center on Southern Avenue in Boardman.

The facility is to advance additive manufacturing and materials development technology for liquid rocket engines and solid rocket motors.

The facility at YBI prints development solid and liquid rocket engines. The company is committed to remaining there, and sought the new space because it ran out of space downtown.

Liquid rocket engines and solid rocket motors power platforms that are essential for America’s security, including high-performance munitions, hypersonic weapons, in-space propulsion systems and space launch, according to the company.

• Staying in Boardman, Humtown Products — a leader in manufacturing conventional and 3D printed sand cores and molds for the foundry industry — acquired the former Gorant’s candy factory at 8301 Market St., Boardman, to remake it into a high-tech manufacturing facility that will house the Columbiana-based company’s additive division.

The company’s traditional sand core and mold manufacturing will remain in Columbiana, as will, at least for some time, packaging and shipping operations, Lamoncha said.

He invested about another $500,000 to improve the building, including widening every entranceway, including the dock doors, to make room for the large printers, a new parking lot and replacing all of the 700 light fixtures with new, more efficient LEDs.

All of the vertical service lines that fed the candy machines were removed, too, but the overhead horizontal piping was untouched.

• In downtown Youngstown, Zoetic Global had a grand opening in July of its new refrigerant manufacturing and distribution center at a warehouse at 360 E. Federal St.

Refrigerant Zoetic makes is specially formulated and patented to make compressors in refrigeration and air conditioning units run smoother and cooler, saving costs and reducing the user’s carbon output.

Once production ramps, the facility is expected to employ about 30 people.

• Also this year, Girard-based VEC Inc. and Phantom Fireworks in Youngstown had growth.

VEC Inc. expanded into Tennessee, a move that positions the national provider of electrical and general contracting services to better service its customers in the Southeast part of the U.S.

The office opened in mid-August.

“The new office in Spring Hill is part of VEC’s plan for strategic growth. We’re focusing on several different types of projects in the Southeastern United States from this office and we’re looking forward to forming strategic partnerships with local businesses and vendors,” Jeff Barber, executive vice president of projects at VEC, said in a news release.

Meanwhile, Phantom Fireworks Inc., a national seller of fireworks, acquired six Sky King Fireworks stores in Pennsylvania and Florida.

“We believe it was a fair deal,” William Weimer, vice president of Phantom Fireworks, said Monday. “These guys have worked hard to build up their business over the years. We know them. We have worked with them periodically on lobbying in different states where we have common interests.”

With the Sky King acquisitions and the new showrooms, Phantom Fireworks will have 91 brick-and-mortar stores.

Sky King was founded in the mid 1990s in Port St. Lucie, Florida, by Stuthers natives Ronald Carrabia and William Micco. Later, Joe VanOudenhove, also of Struthers, and Christopher Yozwiak of Boardman, who died in January from ALS, joined the company as co-owners.

7 Well-known local

businesses sold

There were several longtime and well-known businesses in the Valley sold in 2024.

• It was announced in June that Coates Car Care — founded in 1959 in the McKinley Heights neighborhood of Niles — was acquired by Pittsburgh-based Steel City Wash, which operates as Mr. Magic Car Wash.

The deal was for Coates’ locations in Niles, Howland, Cortland, Austintown, Boardman and Hermitage, Pa. They remained operating under the Coates name.

The company opened its Austintown location in 1999; grew into Howland in 2001; and further expanded across the Pennsylvania border into Hermitage in 2003. The Cortland location opened in 2018, and the Boardman wash opened in 2023.

• In July, Niles Iron & Metal Company — well-known in the region for the massive iron statue outside of its South Main Street operation — was sold to a Wisconsin-based diversified metals manufacturer, Charter Manufacturing.

The transaction included both of the company’s scrap yards — 700 S. Main St., a site that accepts, processes and transports all grades of iron and steel scrap and 45 W. Federal St. downtown, which buys, processes, stores and transports nonferrous metals, particularly aluminum.

Niles Iron & Metal was founded in 1917 by the Clayman family.

• Also in July, it was announced the former McDonald Steel plant on Ohio Avenue was acquired by a New Jersey-based company that purchases decommissioned industrial properties and redevelops them for future use.

AP McDonald LLC, an affiliate of Applied Partners LLC, purchased the 650,000-square-foot facility.

The facility, built in 1918 by U.S. Steel Corporation, was closed in 1979 by U.S. Steel after the company determined it was too old and inefficient to operate profitably. A group of local investors and entrepreneurs stepped in and bought the mill, reconfigured staffing and operations and began producing hot rolled steel shapes in 1981.

McDonald Steel shuttered the 14-inch rolling mill earlier this year.

• It was announced in June the Zidian Group, which operates Boardman-based Summer Garden Food Manufacturing — maker of Gia Russa sauce and other specialty condiments — was acquired by a U.S. subsidiary of Lassonde Industries Inc. in Canada.

Lassonde, which makes and distributes private label and national brand products across North America, announced the deal that could be worth $280 million.

Summer Garden on McClurg Road, develops, makes and markets a wide variety of sauces and condiments. Its portfolio includes about 250 products sold at more than 20,000 locations under the Gia Russa and Little Italy in the Bronx brands, as well as the G Hughes brand, which makes a sugar-free barbecue sauce. G Hughes is Guy Hughes, a well-known pitmaster and sauce maker, of Newton Falls.

“This partnership ensures our legacy will continue to thrive,” Thomas Zidian, president and CEO of Summer Garden, said in a release.

8 Port authority acquires buildings

It was in September the board of the Western Reserve Port Authority approved the acquisition of two prominent downtown Youngstown office buildings — City Centre One and the Commerce Building — for a combined $6 million.

Under the terms of the sales agreement, the port authority, which has its office at City Centre One, will purchase the 10-story building at 100 E. Federal St. for $3.5 million and will buy the Commerce Building, a five-story building at 201 E. Commerce St., for $2.5 million.

The acquisition, according to a statement from the port authority, “strengthens the east end of downtown as a key driver of economic development and professional services. Many businesses and community organizations have been rooted in these properties for decades.”

Then in October, the board OK’d the purchase of the 55,000-square-foot former InfoCision call center on Patriot Boulevard for no more than $2.5 million.

It turned out in November, Mahoning County commissioners bought the facility for $2.5 million to house several county offices, most likely building inspection and planning as well as the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

9 Premiering a merger

Earlier this month, shareholders of Premier Financial Corp. and West Virginia-based WesBanco Inc. approved WesBanco’s acquisition of Premier.

Approximately 85% of the votes cast by WesBanco shareholders were to approve the merger as well as the proposal to issue shares of WesBanco common stock. About 68% of the outstanding shares of the Premier common stock voted to approve the merger agreement.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025.

“Shareholder approval is a key milestone that reflects strong confidence in the opportunities this merger creates for our communities, customers, employees and shareholders,” Jeff Jackson, president and chief executive of WesBanco, said. “With this step complete, we look forward to receiving the required regulatory approvals and then scheduling the closing of the merger, so we can bring our community commitment and the resources of a stronger organization to all of our communities.”

The merger will create a financial services institution with approximately $27 billion in assets, making it the eighth largest bank in Ohio based on market share. It would serve customers in nine states.

10 A brand new ride

In March, a new company emerged from the bankruptcy of failed electric-vehicle manufacturer Lordstown Motors Corp. — Nu Ride Inc.

The company relocated its headquarters from Lordstown to New York and a new chief executive was appointed.

Lordstown Motors filed bankruptcy in June 2023. The company acquired the former General Motors small-car plant in Lordstown to mass produce electric vehicles, but the company ended up selling the facility to Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, which agreed as part of the sale to be manufacturer of Lordstown Motors’ first and only vehicle, the Endurance truck.

The relationship soured and Lordstown Motors sued Foxconn the same day it filed bankruptcy, claiming fraud and bad faith on Foxconn’s part led to the bankruptcy. Foxconn denies the claims.

Earlier this month, a U.S. bankruptcy court judge in Delaware stayed the adversary proceeding, pending a final resolution of Foxconn’s appeal of the court’s order denying their motion to dismiss the lawsuit in favor or arbitration.

Also in March, Lordstown Motors agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle claims made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the company exaggerated and misled investors about the demand for the Endurance.

The payment was to resolve certain pending class action lawsuits against the company in Ohio and Delaware.